Recognise when the Holy Spirit deposits sympathy pain in us
God is never indifferent to our pain and suffering. In the book of Exodus, the Lord said, “I know” the sorrows of the Israelites who were oppressed by their Egyptian slave masters. The root word for “know” in Hebrew is “yada”. More than just intellectual knowledge, “yada” describes deep, experiential, and relational knowledge gained through personal experience and intimacy. In other words, God felt and suffered their pain along with them! This is the essence of sympathy pain. Similarly, the Holy Spirit may allow us to feel sympathy pain for someone He calls us to encourage and minister to. Sympathy pain leads to action. In response to the Israelites’ cries, God called Moses to go to deliver them. In response to the burden of sin and suffering in the world, God sent His very own Son to come bear our grief, carry our sorrows, and deliver us. Now, He calls us to do the same, to bear one another’s burdens.
(简体中文 > 分辨圣灵何时在我们心中种下身同感受的同情之痛 | 繁體中文 > 分辨聖靈何時在我們心中種下身同感受的同情之痛)
Exodus 3:7 NKJV And the Lord said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.
Isaiah 53:4-5 NKJV Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
Galatians 6:2 NKJV Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
The Holy Spirit can deposit other people’s stressful thoughts and emotions into us so that we “yada” their pain from their vantage point. This is the gift of empathy. In fact, there are “mirror neurons” in our brains that allow us to internally “feel” what others feel. When we see someone laugh or cringe in pain, for example, our brains are able to re-create a version of their experiences. We get a sense of what they are feeling as if it were firsthand. This enables us to “rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.”
Romans 12:15-16 NKJV Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.
Sympathy pain may not be a gift that everyone would choose to have, but it plays a vital role in building up the body of Christ, His people. One Corinthians 12:24-26 says, “if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.”
1 Corinthians 12:24-26 NKJV but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
Feeling sympathy pain remotely
Sometimes, this sympathy pain comes remotely. In other words, we suddenly feel a sense of panic, hopelessness, terror, fear, or some other form of distress – for no apparent reason. We only realise later that it was someone else’s emotions that we were experiencing and not our own. (The apostle Paul hints at this ability to feel or perceive things from a distance. He told those at the Colossian church that he was with them in spirit and rejoiced at their faith, even though he was all the way in Rome under house arrest at that time.)
Colossians 2:5 NKJV For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.
Often, this prophetic sensing is an indication that we should quickly ask the Holy Spirit: “What is this feeling about, and how should I pray about a situation or a person?” One temptation is to become confused or alarmed by unannounced sympathy pain and simply brush it off, when the Holy Spirit could be trying to get our attention through our feelings. He could be trying to rescue a soul. (See the testimony below.)
Psalm 31:7 NKJV I will be glad and rejoice in Your mercy, For You have considered my trouble; You have known [yada] my soul in adversities
How the Lord can use sympathy pain to rescue us
Pain, isolation, and distress can overwhelm us. Intellectually, we understand that God loves us but doubts begin to creep in. Our heart murmur:
- “No one understands what I have gone through.”
- “I’m all alone.”
- “No one understands me.”
- “No one cares.”
- “I am not worthy of anyone’s love and attention.”
The experience of sympathy pain demolishes all these beliefs.
If someone comes to tell us that God yada’s our sorrows and has deposited those same sorrows into us so that we yada their pain too, how encouraging that would be. All the lies and murmuring we have been battling with in our hearts would instantly dissolve.
God never forgets us. He is devoted to caring for those who feel weak and vulnerable – just like a nursing mother who has intense attachment and nurturing instincts towards her baby. God’s intense attachment and compassion for His children will lead Him to send someone to show them that He yada’s their pain and show them His comfort. Let us not shy away from sympathy pain and not hesitate to follow the Holy Spirit’s lead to bring His hope to the hurting and lost. Our God is the God of all comfort!
Isaiah 49:15 NKJV “Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NKJV Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
Testimony: Sympathy pain that led to prayer for a cancer patient who felt abandoned
“For about a week, I had been having strange feelings of loneliness and hopelessness, as if nobody cared about me. I was not sure where those emotions came from and I was almost convinced that I did something wrong to distance myself from God. I tried to overcome them through prayer but those feelings wouldn’t go away. At one point, I asked myself if I truly loved God, but I couldn’t answer confidently – then I knew something was wrong.
A friend suggested that those emotions might not belong to me. God could be revealing something to me about another person through my emotions. (One of my spiritual gifts is the gift of empathy.) I asked the Holy Spirit who that person was and He gave me a very clear answer to minister to my uncle.
My uncle is a very new believer, who is currently suffering from stage four lung and colon cancer with less than two-years of life expectancy.
I then made it a point to approach my uncle the next day because the prompting from God was clear. I asked him if he felt lonely (it was super awkward), which kicked off a two-hour long conversation about how he thinks that God doesn’t care about him. Through the leading of the Holy Spirit, we addressed many of his unbiblical life values, past sins and false beliefs about God.
Father God opened my eyes to see how He sees my uncle and gave me the compassion to empathise with him. I guided him to say a prayer of repentance and surrender, to a point where he could thank God for his cancer! He even said it himself that he’s willing to glorify God with his testimony when he gets healed. After the prayer, I felt immersed in the presence of God. All the negative emotions went away and were replaced by a sense of peace, hope and joy. My fear of praying for my uncle was also transformed into confidence in God’s protection and healing power. Praise God!”
May this sharing be a blessing to you as you seek to love the Lord with all your heart and follow the Holy Spirit’s promptings wherever He leads you.